Blind-hinge.



G. W. ELLINGTON.

BLIND HINGE. u'ruonmn Mum JAN. 30, 1909.

920,292. Patented May 4, 1909.

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UNITE STAES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE W. ELLINGTON, OF GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA, ASSIGNOR O I! ONE-THIRD TO OIOERO A. GROOME AND ONE-THIRD TO ZAGARIAH Ir. GROOME, BOTI'l O1 GIUCENSBORO,

NORTH CAROLINA.

B LIND -HING-E.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE W. ELLING- TON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Greensboro, in the county of Guilford and State of North Carolina, have invented a new and useful Blind-Hinge, of which the following is a specification.

The objects of the invention are, generally, the provision, in a merchantable form, of a device of the class above described which shall be inexpensive to manufacture, facile in operation and devoid of complicated parts, specifically, the provision of a lock which Will automatically engage a pair of pivoted hinge members and hold them in alinement, the hold of the locking element upon the hinge members being capable of being broken without lifting or otherwise moving the hinge members themselves or either of them other and further objects being made manifest hereinafter as the description of the invention progresses.

The invention consists in the novel construction and arrangement of parts hereinafter described, delineated in the accompanying drawings, and particularly pointed out in the appended claims,it being understood that within the scope of what is thus claimed, divers changes in the form, proportions, size and minor details of the structure may be made without departing 'rom the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.

Similar numerals of reference are employed to denote corresponding parts throughout the several figures of the drawings.

In the accompanying drawings :Figure 1 shows my invention in top plan; Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof Fig. 3 is a detail perspective of the locking element.

In the accompanying drawings, the numerals 1 and 2 denote a pair of hinge members pivotally united at 3.

The hinge may be of any form, and it may here be noted that my invention is adapted to be used with a hinge, the members of which are permanently assembled with each other.

In carrying out my invention, I provide a retaining member, denoted generally by the numeral 4 and being pivoted adjacent one of its ends upon a rivet 5, or like device, to a hinge member denoted by the numeral 1 This retaining member 4 is rearwardly flexed to circumvent the pivotal connection between the members 1 and 2, and its terminal Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed January 30, 1909.

Patented May 1, 1909.

Serial No. 475,241.

is extended to project across the hinge members when the same are in alinement as shown in Fig. 1.

Passing now to Fig. 3, where the retaining element is shown in detail and upon a larger scale, it will be seen that the same comprises a shanx 6, having an aperture 7, to receive the aforementioned rivet 5, whereby the retaining member is united with the hinge member 1. The lower terminal of the shank 6 is bent into a plane substantially at right angles to the plane of the shank 6 to form a support engaging foot 8. The upper terminal of the shank 6 is laterally extended and back bent, as denoted by the numeral 9, in order to pass around the pivotal connection 3 between the hinge members 1 and 2. The extremity 10 of the portion 9 is bent to occupy a plane substantially parallel to the plane of the support engaging foot 8, and is beveled upon its lower edge at its outer end, as shown at 11, the said beveled portion 11 terminating rearwardly at a notch 12, which is introduced into the lower edge of the member in the portion 10 thereof.

The device is so mounted upon the pivotal connection 5 that the notched end normally tends to drop downward, and the downward movement of this notched end is limited by the contact between the foot 8 and the support upon which the hinge member 1 is mounted, so that the beveled portion 11 is at all times in a ppsition to engage the top of the hinge mem er 2.

Supposing in the present instance that the support 13 represents a portion of a window casing and that 14: denotes a blind for the window, it will be seen that when the blind 14 is swung into the open position shown in Fig. 1., the beveled portion 11 of the retaining member 4 will engage the top of the hinge element 2, the said retaining member 4 being lifted and the hinge element 2 n1oving backward into locking engagement with the notch 12, in which it will be securely retained.

In order to break the locking connection between blind hinges of the common and ordinary construction it is necessary to lift the blind before the same can be swung into a closed position, and, in this lifting operation, the blind is frequently raised clear from its support and falls to the ground. I regard it as of importance that in my invention this lifting operation is dispensed with entirely.

When it is desired to swing the blind 14 into a closed position the retaining member may be lifted from its locked position by exerting slight upward digital pressure upon the beveled portion 11. It will be seen that in this operation the hinge itself is not disturbed, and further that there is no possibility of the blind being lifted from its seat. Indeed, as hereinbe'fore pointed out, the hinge elements 1 and 2 may, if desired, be permanently assembled with each other.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to protect, by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination with a pair of pivotally connected hinge members, of a hook pivoted adjacent one end to one member and positioned to extend across the pivotal connection between the members into engagement with the other member, the terminal of the hook adjacent the pivotal mounting thereof being bent to form a support-engagr ing foot, positioned to limit the downward movement of the other terminal of the hook.

2. In a device of the class described, a hinge comprising a fixed member and a movable member; a retaining element pivoted to the fixed member intermediate the support-engaging end of the fixed member and the hinge connection between the fixed member and the movable member; the retaming element being terminally bent to form a support-engaging foot arranged to maintain the retaining element in a position operative to to hold the movable member in substantial parallelism with the fixed member.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have hereto affixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE W. ELLINGTON Witnesses VJ. M. BARBER, O. F. TooMnR.

engage the movable member, 

